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We like: Mujeeb Jaihoon's twitter achievement

Mujeeb collected all his tweets from his travels across India and published what he describes as "a twitter travelogue"

By Sami Said Ali for Friday magazine

Published: 00:00 May 20, 2011

Early last year, Mujeeb Jaihoon, a Sharjah-based Indian writer, took off on an adventure of sorts, travelling across Delhi, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan - "to get to know the real India up close and personal."

Jaihoon, who is extremely active on Twitter, the microblogging site, regularly tweeted on all the things that he saw and experienced.

Returning after his month-long trip, he decided to do something different from most travel writers: he collected all his tweets and published what he describes as "a twitter travelogue." Titled Mission Nizamuddin, it is different because of its brevity and spontaneity.

"I used to sum up my [thoughts on the] place I was in and tweet about them. The tweets all had to do about the culture of the place at the grassroots level," says Jaihoon.

Publishing this book was an experiment of sorts to prove the size of the book should not be the prime concern, says Jaihoon. "I will not forget the moment I received the first copy of my twitterature from my Delhi publishers. Mission Nizamuddin can be read in about 15 minutes, yet it is a satisfying read.

"I used rhythmic prose in my first travelogue which was my third published book, The Cool Breeze. So it surprised my readers when I published a twitter travelogue where I had to capture my feelings in 140 characters. It was an experiment to explore the possibilities of technology," he adds.

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"I think the best way of presenting yourself to the world is through the internet because its reach is truly amazing.

"Some time ago I received a message from a lady in the US who told me had she printed out my poem [which she had read on my website] and pasted it on her fridge. Then there was a gentleman from an old age home who wrote to me saying he finds solace in my poems."